PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia is reporting 841 new COVID-19 cases and 15 new deaths on Tuesday, with new daily cases statewide continuing their trend down over the past week.
On Tuesday, Gov. Ralph Northam announced all of the state except Richmond and Northern Virginia would move into phase 2 reopening. That means some restaurants can have indoor dining at reduced capacity, and people can gather in groups up to 50 people.
However in the past week, cases in Northern Virginia have fallen dramatically, but cases in the rest of the state have been increasing. Northern Virginia averaged 627 cases per day a week ago, but it is now reporting 489 on average. The rest of the state went from 401 per day to 496.
In the last four days the rest of the state has more cases as well, an inverse of long trend that saw Northern Virginia will most of the state’s cases per day.
That trend could be correlated with the rest of the state (besides Accomack County and Richmond) going to phase 1 of the state’s reopening plan back on May 15. Northern Virginia only entered phase 1 last Friday, May 29.
The rest of the state has already been testing much more in comparison to Northern Virginia recently.
Meanwhile deaths reported due to COVID-19 have been trending down daily since peak in late April/early May.
This all comes with steady increases in testing, with Virginia’s percent of positive tests now at 11.5% percent. Tidewater, outside of the Eastern Shore, continues to remain under 10% positivity.
Meanwhile hospitalizations statewide have been trending down and are about 300 patients below Virginia’s peak in early May. 6,011 people have been discharged after being hospitalized with COVID-19.
Here’s the latest for Tidewater:
Accomack: 939 cases, 49 hospitalized, 12 deaths (+22 cases)
Chesapeake: 541 cases, 89 hospitalized, 15 deaths (+6 cases, +1 hospitalization)
Franklin: 42 cases, 3 hospitalized, 2 deaths (no increases)
Gloucester: 31 cases, 8 hospitalized, 1 death (no increases)
Hampton: 212 cases, 30 hospitalized, 3 deaths (+2 cases)
Isle of Wight: 132 cases, 12 hospitalized, 3 deaths (+4 cases)
James City County: 210 cases, 54 hospitalized, 15 deaths (+4 cases)
Mathews: 5 cases, 2 hospitalized, 0 deaths (no increases)
Newport News: 291 cases, 41 hospitalized, 10 deaths (+9 cases, + 1 hospitalization)
Norfolk: 530 cases, 70 hospitalized, 6 deaths (+9 cases, +1 hospitalization)
Northampton: 243 cases 28 hospitalized, 23 deaths (+2 cases)
Poquoson: 8 cases, 2 hospitalized, 0 deaths (no increases)
Portsmouth: 325 cases, 47 hospitalized, 11 deaths (+12 cases, +3 hospitalizations)
Southampton: 149 cases, 6 hospitalized, 2 deaths (+2 cases)
Suffolk: 317 cases, 52 hospitalized, 33 deaths (+1 case, +2 hospitalizations, +1 death)
Virginia Beach: 752 cases, 95 hospitalized, 23 deaths (+7 cases, +1 hospitalized)
Williamsburg: 44 cases, 10 hospitalized, 4 deaths (no increases)
York: 77 cases, 10 hospitalized, 3 deaths (+1 hospitalization)
Quick takeaways:
- 1 new death reported in the region, in Suffolk, which has by far the most deaths of any Tidewater locality. No deaths were reported in Tidewater on Monday.
- 80 new cases reported
- Accomack is still adding cases in double digits, but it’s unclear how many are still from those 510 backlogged May 15 chicken plant cases.
- Portsmouth has reported 7 new hospitalizations in the last day
Governor Northam will hold his now biweekly press conference on the coronavirus outbreak at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Watch it live on WAVY.com.
This article will be updated. For more information from the Virginia Department of Health, click here.